MER Article Football and Film in the Islamic Republic of Iran Maziar Bahari opens his documentary, Football Iranian Style (2001), at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, where a large mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic until his death in 1989, peers down on the 110,000 soccer fans filling the bleachers. Like 75 percent of Iran’ Shiva Balaghi • 9 min read
MER Article "Let Us Be Moors" “Seamos moros!” wrote the Cuban poet and nationalist José Martí in 1893, in support of the Berber uprising against Spanish rule in northern Morocco. “Let us be Moors...the revolt in the Rif...is not an isolated incident, but an outbreak of the change and realignment that have entered the world. Let Hisham Aïdi • 33 min read
MER Article "Honor Crimes" and the International Spotlight on Jordan With the runaway success of Norma Khouri’s Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan, “honor crimes” -- killings of girls or women accused of sexual transgressions, in order to cleanse family honor -- are firmly equated in the eyes of the West with Jordan. Khouri’s book sold well Janine A. Clark • 12 min read
MER Article No Buying Off the Past Since King Mohammed VI ascended the throne in 1999, Morocco has created various bodies to pay cash awards to Moroccans "disappeared," imprisoned or tortured for their political beliefs under the reign of his king father. But there have been no trials of the jailers and torturers. Former prisoners co Susan Slyomovics • 11 min read
MER Article Will Iraqis Find Justice in War Crimes Tribunals? Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili no doubt knew the risks he faced when he ventured out of his house in Najaf on November 3, 2003. But the head judge of the Najaf governorate, member of a commission collecting evidence against former Iraqi officials possibly complicit in crimes against humanity, quickly discov Hassan Fattah • 5 min read
MER Article Paying the Price of Injustice Around 30 soldiers invaded my home at 2:30 am on August 17, 2001. They searched the home and messed up our belongings, breaking the windows and confiscating our telephone agenda. They took me to the roof of the house for two hours and asked me about people they wanted. Catherine Cook, Adah Kay, Adam Hanieh • 14 min read
MER Article Does International Justice Have a Local Address? The principle of universal jurisdiction, if realized in practice, can play a crucial role in the international campaign against impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Encoded in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Laurie King-Irani • 14 min read
MER Article Reviving Global Justice, Addressing Legitimate Grievances Since its founding moments, the United States has been bedeviled by a morally self-congratulatory image of American exceptionalism, despite engaging in practices that violate the most fundamental precepts of human decency. This dualism, constituted by dynamics of denial and myth-making, has achieved a public posture of innocence throughout Richard Falk • 7 min read
MER Article From Nuremberg to Guantánamo All that is needed to achieve total political domination is to kill the juridical in humankind. -- Hannah Arendt, On the Origins of Totalitarianism In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the US, George W. Bush used terms like "punishment" and "justice" to assert what Lisa Hajjar • 18 min read
MER Article Edward Said: A Tribute On September 25, 2003, many people across the globe lost a dear friend. Edward W. Said was and remains our friend, brother and comrade. He was a scholar, a humanist and an untiring advocate of Palestinian rights. Without him we feel adrift, even helpless, but we must resist this feeling. In and thro Nubar Hovsepian • 5 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Winter 2003) "If Saddam had nuclear weapons, Iraq's geographic location at the head of the Persian Gulf would allow him to threaten the destruction of a number of targets of great importance to the United States. The Saudi oilfields are a particularly worrisome target." These lines do not The Editors • 5 min read
